Chapter 729: Going to the Catholic Hometown to Have Fun
"You did it on purpose, didn't you?"
As soon as Murphy returned to the CAA office floor upstairs after the press conference, Carla Firth, who came up with him, asked, "You have a plan for a long time, right?" ”
Murphy didn't answer and walked towards Bill Rothes's office. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
Kara Firth glanced at him from the side, then said with great certainty, "You did it on purpose, you planned it early!" ”
It's clear that Stanton Studios got the relevant film license from the Boston Globe a few years ago, and in the process of "Diego Rose" hitting the Oscars, it is cleverly using the conflict between the Catholic Church and Hollywood, and if he has no plan, a fool will not believe it.
"My plan is to use this new film to stir the sensitive nerves of the Catholic Church."
Carla Firth is not an outsider either, Murphy simply said directly, "Let them continue to attack me, this is conducive to the award of "Dark City", I didn't expect the plan to change as quickly, there was a shooting in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, which can be regarded as a counterattack to the Catholic Church." ”
"It's more than that, isn't it?"
It's all old friends, Carla Firth can guess some of Murphy's thoughts, "I heard that Howard Koch, the current rotating president of the academy, is very dissatisfied with the Catholic Church's desire to interfere in Hollywood, and has united a large number of influential old men in the academy to fight back against the Catholic in the media with major Hollywood companies behind the scenes, and if you want to shoot such a film now, those old guys, and even most of Hollywood companies, I am afraid they will raise their hands to express their approval and welcome." ”
"Who knows?" Murphy shrugged, "I'm just taking advantage of the situation. ”
He pushed open Bill Rothes' office door and walked straight inside.
Carafis then followed, and when he saw Murphy say hello to Bill Rothes and sit on the couch, he couldn't help but sigh, maybe Murphy is not the best director in Hollywood, but he is the director who is the best at creating situations and taking advantage of them.
In this regard, if he is ranked second among all directors in Hollywood, I am afraid that no one will be ranked first.
Sitting on the couch next to Murphy, the three of them discussed some things about the film.
"The investment in movies is not going to be very high."
But most of the time, it's Murphy who says, "That's enough for $40 million." ”
Carla Firth asked, "What about the investment percentage?" ”
"Leave it all to Twentieth Century Fox." Murphy wasn't going to let Stanton Studios invest, "You know, I'm staring at Sony Columbia Pictures. ”
"Hmm." Carla Firth nodded, "The investment of $40 million is not much, and it will take another month at most to pass the company's routine review." ”
"What about the goal?" Bill Rothes asked, "Next awards season?" ”
"Yes!" Murphy said solemnly, "The main goal of this film is to win the award, and all the plans must be carried out around this goal. ”
Carla Firth thought for a moment, "There is no problem with this, if the film can win an important Oscar, income will not be a problem, and the company will definitely have no opinion." ”
Although the influence of the Oscars is declining, the Oscar effect is still obvious to the growth of a film's market revenue.
"That's right, Murphy." Carla Firth asked, "When will you be able to finish this film soon?" ”
Murphy had already planned, saying, "It won't be more than May next year." ”
"Can you speed it up a bit?" Carla Firth reminds us that "we can go to the Cannes Film Festival in April. ”
For Hollywood's award-winning films, the awards often start in the first half of the year, and some films have even been screened at the St. Denis Film Festival at the beginning of the year to create a reputation for the awards season at the end of the year.
"No, we're not going to Cannes!" Murphy made a more thoughtful suggestion, "Let's go to Italy!" Go to Venice! ”
How can a film with such a theme and content be worthy of the various reproaches of the Catholic Church if he does not go to Italy?
"Venice Film Festival?" Carla Firth immediately smiled, "Great idea! Let's go to Venice! Go to the old home of Catholicism! Catholicism is not encouraging the media and some organizations to target us, let's put the premiere of this film in front of the eyes of the Vatican! Let them take a good look at who is lacking in social responsibility! ”
Bill Rothes looks at Murphy and Carla Firth, these two are lawless working partners.
However, it is a good way to win the goodwill of Hollywood.
Now when it comes to Catholic accusations and interference, most people in Hollywood scoff at it, and some typical liberals have even begun to scold Catholicism in the media.
Murphy looked at the time, "I'm going to attend a theatrical seminar, Kara, you remember to remind Fox to sign up for the Venice Film Festival." Bill, the PR work on "Dark City", you keep an eye on it for the time being.
After saying goodbye to Carla Firth and Bill Rothes, Murphy went to the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills for a reception from the North American Theater Alliance, which was preparing to raise movie ticket prices again, to consult with Hollywood directors and other practitioners about it.
With the depreciation of the dollar, the price of movie tickets is unavoidable, and Murphy knows very well that this so-called consultation is just a routine work, and the reason why he came here is mainly because the major theaters in North America have given him enough support for his films in the past, and attendance is also a basic courtesy.
In fact, the trend of rising movie ticket prices in North America is already obvious.
Although the film industry is facing more and more competition from other entertainment, the North American box office in the past summer is still higher than last year, but for industry insiders like Murphy, it is also clear that the rise in the North American box office market is not caused by the increase in the number of moviegoers, but more due to the increase in the price of movie tickets.
For consumers who love entertainment, the current is a golden age, with super blockbusters sweeping in, a series of screen blockbusters that are overwhelming, stimulating the audiovisual enjoyment of audiences around the world, and the TV entertainment industry is thriving more than ever as the commercial value of the entertainment industry becomes increasingly prominent, and more and more high-quality TV series are also being released.
Of course, there is also plenty of live entertainment to choose from, such as sports games, concerts, and various other media shows.
In this increasingly competitive climate, it stands to reason that film distributors will be more cautious in trying to maintain a balance of payments, and even reduce profits appropriately – more to the benefit of consumers in order to consolidate their market position.
But on the contrary, what Murphy sees is that ticket prices are quietly and slowly rising.
At the meeting, Murphy received the results of a spontaneous survey by the National Association of Theater Owners that the average price of a single movie ticket in North America this year exceeded $8, which has reached an all-time high.
That's a whopping 26 cents jump, up nearly four percent from the previous year's average ticket price, which itself was a record high.
However, the North American audience is not very repulsive to this small increase.
Audiences are always looking for audio-visual enjoyment, and despite the rapid development of home theater products, the visual experience of the cinema will always be bigger and better than that of their own home, especially the special picture effects such as IMAX cinema and 3D technology are becoming more and more popular with audiences, and these technical means can help increase the immersive entertainment experience, and it continues to evolve.
IMAX ticket prices are an additional $3 to 4 higher than ordinary movies, and the audience's pursuit of better audio-visual stimulation can easily raise the value of movies, such as when "Dark City" was released, a large number of IMAX movie tickets were snapped up by fans, instantly driving up the average ticket price of the entire summer file, creating an all-time high of $8.83.
Film companies and cinema companies are profit-driven, and they are and will be, but they also know that they have to further reduce their risk in the fierce shopping mall, so they have to be smarter and choose more 3D.
Today's studios are increasingly focusing on family-friendly films and action blockbusters – especially PG-13 films that combine the two – rather than simply making everything in 3D. Because they know that audiences want to have a better cinema experience for the subject they want to see, and are willing to pay a little more for it.
In this digital age, audiences are becoming more and more discerning about high-quality pictures and sound, and quality comes at a cost, and large movie theater chains have spent a lot of money to upgrade their sound systems, add digital projectors, and then spread these expenses to each audience.
It's typically a small increase, and consumers generally don't mind because they see or hear the immediate benefits of a theater upgrade, and if audiences can hear crisp and powerful surround sound instead of choppy broken sound, they won't mind paying an extra 50 cents eight times a year out of ten times a year to pay for the difference.
The customer's experience of the service has a great impact on the overall impression, and a good service can make the audience feel that their movie-watching experience is high-level and can be relieved from the distractions and trivialities of daily life.
The increase in movie ticket prices may seem noticeable because of the general inflation, but in the end, it seems that going to the movies is still one of the most affordable forms of family entertainment, both in the United States and in most parts of the world.
After attending the regular meeting, taking a photo with the key members of the Board of Directors of the North American Cinema Alliance, and politely saying a few words of thanks for their continued support, Murphy left the Four Seasons Hotel and then returned to the manor, put aside other work for a while, and began to prepare the script outline and project plan for the new film.